How to list involvement in a research project without being dishonest

Question

A few years back, during my graduate school years I participated in a regional project which brought together individuals from both industry and academia to carry out an engineering study to assess the vulnerability of the region in question to natural hazards like hurricanes. My participation lasted for about a year, was on a voluntary basis and was a great opportunity to learn new skills and get exposure to the local engineering community. I compiled a report at the end to document my findings and convinced one of the involved faculty members to sign it off as my official Master's thesis, which she did gladly due to the good quality of the work.

Years later, I still list this as work experience on my Resume/CV because the skills I learned and the work I did there remain relevant today. I had no official job title, but early on listed my job title as "Student Volunteer" or "Research Volunteer". However, I have noticed that as time went on I begin to list it under "Research Assistant", making it seem like the position was full-time and that I was "employed" under the nonprofit entity which was sponsoring the project, neither of which is true.

I'm on the hunt for jobs again and have been polishing up my CV, but this does begin to feel quite dishonest. The job was not full time, and I was not officially employed under this nonprofit organization. Everyone was pleased with my work but I'm not sure if this gives me license to make things look more rosy than they really are. Furthermore I've been told that in the country I live it is customary to slightly contort job titles to make them match individual job application, but from "Student Volunteer" all the way to "Research Assistant" seems like a bit of a stretch. Finally, I'm listing it under "Employment History" or "Work Experience", but neither was it a formal job, nor was I paid for it.

I definitely want to continue listing this in my Resume, but how do I do it in such a way that it's A) not dishonest and B) does not minimize the very high quality of work and degree of professionalism that I displayed?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Thanks for the question and for trying to keep things honest for yourself and for recruiters.

Two suggestions:

1. If it contributed to your Masters degree (which sounds like it did), consider listing it under "Projects" section (e.g., "Projects" section on LinkedIn profile). You can put your university as the associated organization, and add a 2-3 sentence description of the project and your role on it.

2. Alternatively, since it was on a volunteer basis, consider listing it under "Volunteering" section (e.g., "Volunteering" section on LinkedIn profile). Also list other volunteer experience, if any, including roles on projects where you volunteered time, involvement with nonprofits, community organizations, or clubs where you worked for free (or for relatively little, nominal compensation) that benefited a group or community. Note: Whatever you decide, avoid listing it in both sections (double-dip) as that may come off as confusing or worse, an attempt to mislead by overstating experience.

Finally, I don't necessarily recommend this but if it's been a few years and you've had a few jobs since, you could consider dropping it from your CV altogether. If the "value-add" of listing this experience is low, and your degree mostly captures your skillset gained during that timeframe, then omitting it seems acceptable.

Hiring managers typically focus on most recent formal work experiences rather than what someone did once in grad school, so it is unlikely this would impact your chances of getting a job. Good luck!

Answer 2

Get back to being honest.

It is valid and useful history on the CV for certain employers. Even if the job doesn't directly require that skill.

It shows that you've been exposed to and participated in proper science / data / research / etc. That is a valuable skill at whatever level.

Puffery to the point of a blatant lie isn't helpful. It is a wasted opportunity to gain trust.

Your question - how? Like anyother skill and job. A short description of what you did. Something like: gathered data following strict protocol. And the skills required / learned: used xyz tools.

This should be an interesting point for a thinking manager to notice. IMHO.